Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Salix alba
Common name
White Willow (var. alba), Golden Willow (var. vitellina)
Family
Salicaceae
Where found
Near fresh water. Sydney area and west towards Cowra, along the Hume Highway, and Canberra. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced deciduous tree to 20 m high; sometimes with several trunks diverging from ground level. Bark grey-brown, rough, deeply fissured with age. Main branches erect; smaller branches often shortly weeping. Stems at first densely appressed hairy, often becoming hairless, shiny yellow- to red-brown. Leaves alternating up the stems, 3–13 cm long, 5–25 mm wide, upper surface hairy or becoming hairless, lower surface grey or somewhat glaucous; margins very finely but sharply toothed with a small gland in the notch in front of each tooth, tips pointed, stipules small, soon lost. Male and female flowers on separate plants. Individual flowers often small, with 0 petals, in cylindrical clusters (catkins), appearing at the ends of the stems with the new leaves. Male catkins many-flowered, 30–90 mm long, 5–11 mm in diameter; female catkins 30–60 mm long, 5–7 mm in diameter. Flowers spring. Reproduces by seed and vegetatively via the rooting of detached twigs or branches.
A Weed of National Significance. General Biosecurity Duty with additional restrictions all NSW. Pest plant ACT. Noxious weed Vic.
var. alba: Twigs brownish or olive-green; leaves persistently shiny hairy above.
var. vitellina: Twigs yellow or orange (especially conspicuous in the winter months); leaves becoming hairless.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Salix~alba (accessed 5 February, 2021)
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